Moviemaker D'Souza: New Film to Focus on American Values

A new documentary from filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza — co-director and writer of the blockbuster "2016: Obama's America” — is to be released next July Fourth.

“America,” D’Souza said, will extoll American exceptionalism, celebrate American values, and counter the vision offered by President Barack Obama. The new film will build on the case against the Obama agenda, he said, although it is not intended as a sequel to ‘2016.’

In "2016," D'Souza used arguments made in his bestselling 2010 book "The Roots of Obama's Rage" to argue that Obama had deep-seated anger against the country he leads, a feeling that he absorbed from his father, a Kenyan who resented British colonialism.

D'Souza says his new film takes the next step, by offering a debate between the competing visions of America's 1776 Founding Fathers and "Obama's America," which he traces to the radical upheavals of 1968.

While D'Souza's first film exposed what he saw as Obama's philosophy for the nation, "America" will look at the great debate "over the meaning of America," he said, and ponder the notion of what the world would be like today if America had not come into existence.

"It has taken America a couple hundred years to build a society of widespread prosperity, that has exercised a huge influence on the world, not only with power but in terms of values," D'Souza tells Newsmax.

But "America" also poses a thought worth pondering: "If we lose sight of the values that built America, we might actually be accessories in dismantling it," D'Souza says of the film's theme.

D'Souza, 52, a native of Mumbai, India, came to the United States as a foreign student. He earned a degree from Dartmouth, gaining notoriety for his conservative writings — he famously coined the term "political correctness" — and is the author of several influential and best-selling books, including "Letters to a Young Conservative" and "What's So Great About America."

D'Souza said that "1968 marks the year the Democratic Party swung to the left and sort of became the movement we know today. That's what the Obama Democrat stands for," he said.

"On one hand, we're making a film that will present an intelligent and inspiring film, but on the other hand it's a film that will look squarely at the great conflict and arguments in America," he said. "We're contrasting in the film the spirit of 1776 with the spirit of 1968 – both of those reflecting two powerful but almost rival perspectives on America."

The spirit of 1776 is of revolution and has particular relevance today, he says, as conservatives and tea party members are trying to conserve the very principle that inspired the nation's founding.

"In the film we want to bring out that debate with all its fire and passion situated historically and let people see out how it plays out today," said D'Souza who will be traveling around the nation and the world, as he did in his previous film, to make his point.

D'Souza said the "film will very clearly show what are the principles that built America, but will also show the tendencies that are taking America down."

"History shows that once a country loses its pre-eminent position in the world, it never gets it back," he said. "If America loss its position and its standard of living, they are not going to get it back."

The film is in its early stages now and should be completed by June 2014.

D'Souza says he hopes supporters and conservatives will come out in droves to help it surpass liberal Michael Moore's film as the nation's top documentary on record.

D'Souza jokes of Moore, his outspoken movie-making counterpart on the left: "We have to dethrone the fat guy. It's too embarrassing to be right behind him. I sometimes joke that he's a symbol of the federal government – overweight and out of control. We want to give him a run for his money."

D'Souza adds: "Since Hollywood isn't going to give us any Oscars, it would be extremely satisfying to beat him at the box office."